No. 11: Picadita at Alebrije's Grill

You can join the thousands of non-wab Orange Countians who have visited Alebrije's on the corner of Main and Cubbon streets in SanTana, eat nothing but their legendary taco acorazado (which we named our favorite dish in Orange County in 2010 because it was), and you'd be in our good graces forever. But on your next visit, extricate yourself from the routine--yes, it'll be hard straying from the acorazado's hearty caress, but just do it. Learn that Albert the owner makes amazing food across the board--fat tacos, big burritos, hefty tortas and the best quesadillas this side of my comal.

And eventually settle on the lonchera's other specialty from Cuernavaca--the picadita.

Picaditas swept across OC's lonchera scene a couple of years ago: glorified sopes topped with cheese, crema, a salsa, and nothing else. Good, but whatever--I rarely order them. But at Alebrije's, I've found myself returning to them and--gasp!--even ignoring the acorazado.

It has the the classic Alebrije's sides of grilled jalapeños, onions, and nopales, and the added bonus of being as thick as an elementary school textbook. Because it's so thick, you get a marvelous masa experience: crunchy at the edges, thick in the center, as chewy as a pancake but with that telltale corn essence that comes only from masa that was just formed. Alebrije's salsas are always spectacular, and play perfectly off the salty crumbles of cotija and refreshing crema. No need for repollo--between the crunch and the savoriness, you will forget about the acorazado for all of one afternoon, and even the next.

Gustavo Arellano is the editor of OC Weekly, author of the syndicated column "¡Ask a Mexican!", and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. He started at the paper with an angry, fake letter to the editor and went from there—only in Anacrime!